In 134 BC Gaius 13Sempronius Gracchus, Tiberius’ brother, was in Spain where he served under his cousin Aemilianus at Numantia. In 131 BC he supported Papirius (5)’s attempt to allow re-election to the tribunate and in 126 BC opposed Junius (7)’s law expelling aliens from Rome. He went to Sardinia as quaestor, where the consul 02Aurelius Orestes was suppressing a revolt. Tiberius’ office was extended into 125 and then to 124 BC but he ignored the second extension and returned to Rome, where he successfully defended his early departure to the censors.
In 123 BC Graccus was elected tribune and embarked on a legislative programme aimed at avenging his brother’s death, alleviating poverty and winning the support of the people. At the instigation of his mother he dropped a proposal, aimed at Marcus Octavius (1), to ban magistrates who had been deposed by the assembly from holding further office; but he then carried a retrospective measure that made it illegal for a court not authorised by the people to assume the power to inflict capital punishment. Under this law, 04Popillius Laenas who had executed the supporters of Tiberius after trying them in 132 BC, was impeached and exiled.
Gaius revived his brother’s lex Sempronia agraria by removing the limitations imposed on the commission by Aemilianus; enacted the lex Sempronia frumentaria to supply grain at subsidised prices; and passed the lex militaris to set the minimum age for military service at seventeen and to provide soldiers with free clothing. He proposed the building of more roads and the founding of Latin colonies at Neptunia (Tarentum, Apulia) and Minervia (Scolacium, Calabria), and used a fellow tribune Rubrius to propose the foundation of a Roman colony called Junonia on the ruins of Carthage (lex Rubria).
In 123 BC 08Junius Silanus (cos.109 BC) introduced the lex Junia against exploitative provincial Roman governors, which preceded the lex Acilia repetundarum (extortion) proposed by the tribune 02Acilius Glabrio in the following year. To widen his support Gaius courted the equites by changing the procedure so that in quaestiones de rebus repetundis (‘courts trying repetundae’), senators were replaced by an all equestrian jury – senatorial jurors were known to be reluctant to convict their fellow senators serving in the provinces. To drive a further wedge between the equestrians and the senators, Gaius carried a law that put the collection of taxes in Asia up for auction in Rome, where the equestrians made a huge outlay in bids to the censors for five-year contracts.
In 122 BC Gaius was re-elected; it seems that sometime before he took the office a law had been enacted allowing successive tribunates. After the Second Latin War (341-338 BC) with Rome’s power over the Latin cities firmly established, the Latins were granted a special legal status (ius Latii).
Gaius now proposed a modified version of the failed idea of 14Fulvius Flaccus, now a tribune and his most important supporter, to confer Roman citizenship on the Latins and give the Italian allies the status of the Latins. This proposal was far-sighted and could have produced a process by which conquered people could become allies, then Latins and finally Roman citizens. But it was unpopular with the Roman people who, like the optimates, were jealous of their privileges, and when the measure came to a vote it was rejected.
The Senate persuaded the tribune 04Livius Drusus (fl.121-108 BC) to introduce an alternative programme: the creation of twelve colonies with three thousand settlers, relief from the rents due on allotments given by the Land Commission, and for it to be illegal to scourge men with Latin rights. These proposals, the leges Liviae, were never enacted, but they nevertheless undermined support for Gaius’ own proposals.
About this time Gaius left Rome to supervise the founding of Junonia. During his absence his enemies did their best to discredit his policies. After two months away he returned and introduced the bills for the remainder of his legislation. The Senate induced the consul Gaius Fannius (1) to expel from Rome all those not Roman by birth and to remove the crowds of pro-Gracchan Italians gathering in the city. When Gaius failed to get elected tribune for 121 BC the combined political strength of the consul Lucius Opimius (2), the tribune 07Minucius Rufus and Drusus, threatened Gaius’ legislation.
It began with Minucius proposing the repeal of the lex Rubria. Gaius and his supporters mounted a demonstration on the Capitoline Hill to oppose this change and a riot ensued in which the consul’s attendant Quintus Antyllius was attacked and killed. Opimius persuaded the Senate to pass a senatus consultum ultimum (‘Final decree of the Senate’), an unprecedented decree of martial law, and ordered the senators and the equites to arm themselves and their servants. The reformers retreated to the Aventine Hill, where the consul and his followers overwhelmed and killed them. Another three thousand Gracchan supporters were executed shortly thereafter.
In 121 BC 04Popillius Laenas was allowed to return from banishment on a motion by the tribune 06Calpurnius Bestia (cos.111 BC). The following year Opimius was prosecuted by the tribune 04Decius Subulo for the murder of Gaius Gracchus. Opimius was defended by the consul 05Papirius Carbo who did not deny the murder but claimed it was justified by the interests of the state. Opimius was acquitted but the next year Carbo himself was impeached on a similar charge by the orator 07Licinius Crassus, whose speech was so effective that Carbo anticipated the verdict and committed suicide.
Appian mentions three laws passed after Gaius’ assassination: (1) settlers receiving land allotments could sell them (probably 121 BC); (2) the Land Commission abolished and the distribution of ager publicus to cease (Thorius (1), 119 BC); (3) the rent payable on ager publicus abolished. Probably in 111 BC Thorius introduced a second law that brought the issue of ager publicus to a close, confirming the ownership of land that had been distributed as well as the ownership of the wealthy who were holding large amounts of land. The Senators naturally resented Gaius’ extortion law and over the next fifty years or so the composition of the juries of the extortion court and, by association, of other juries was bitterly contested. In 106 BC the consul 08Servilius Caepio (fl.109-104 BC) with his lex ServiliaCaepio restored some control (i.e. of unknown proportion) to the senators as jurors on the extortion court’s panel, thus ending its domination by the equites. In 101 BC the tribune 09Servilius Glaucia passed his lex Servilia Glaucia restoring the all equestrian jury to the extortion court, thus revoking Caepio’s general regulation and eliminating senators from the law courts altogether.
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